by Andrew Rowen | Sep 2, 2019 | New York City
As recounted in prior blogs, Columbus’s march from La Isabela to establish Fort Santo Tomás in March 1494 violated Guarionex’s chiefdom and commenced “Española’s” conquest, whereby Columbus initially sought to intimidate the island’s peoples into submission and...
by Andrew Rowen | Jul 6, 2019 | New York City
A third of the men enlisted on Columbus’s second voyage grew seriously ill within days of La Isabela’s founding in January 1494 (see blog of January 6). As the expedition’s provisions exhausted, many men also hungered, reluctant to eat the food obtainable by bartering...
by Andrew Rowen | May 17, 2019 | New York City
Last week, I traveled to sites in the Lesser Antilles where events occurred during Columbus’s second voyage that I’m depicting in the sequel to Encounters Unforeseen, which will dramatize the history of 1493–1498 through the eyes of the same Taíno and European...
by Andrew Rowen | Mar 17, 2019 | New York City
On this date 525 years ago, Columbus commenced construction of his first fort in Española’s interior, built to protect a garrison of men as they explored for gold and commenced subjugation of the Taíno population. He named it for the apostle who initially doubted...
by Andrew Rowen | Jan 6, 2019 | New York City
On this date 525 years ago, Columbus and those who sailed on his second voyage (an estimated 1,200–1,500 persons) celebrated their first mass at the settlement he established on “Española’s” central northern coast (in the modern Dominican Republic) and named La...
